Month: May 2019

Arrived at Austin East KOA Holiday, Austin, TX. Thursday late afternoon after driving 510 miles. Right friendly folk greeted us and told us about all the sights we wanted to see the next day.

Friday morning, we drove 1 ½ hours north to Waco to spend the day at Chip and Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Properties, from the HGTV Fixer Upper TV Show. First order of business was breakfast at Magnolia Table. A good Texas downpour began just as we arrived and we were told it would be an hour wait! No worries headed over to the Take Away Café and Gift Area to check it out.

Take Away Cafe

Gift Ideas

Beautiful Decor

All about Branding the Name, Aluminum bottled water

Finally, we were seated in Magnolia Table, beautifully decorated and a delicious breakfast was served! They had a special Spring menu, we ordered the Lemon Blueberry Pancakes, their traditional pancakes filled with blueberries and lemon zest, topped with lemon butter, served with two eggs, house made Tator Tots, and thick-cut peppered bacon. The other order was French toast, topped with strawberry butter, served with two eggs, house made Tator Tots, and house sausage. We were driving right in, then thought of a picture!

Tator Tots in cast iron skillet

Chip & Jo hand prints in concrete at Magnolia Table

Now with our bellies full on to Magnolia Market at the Silos, Silos Baking Co., and Magnolia Seed & Supply.

Magnolia MarketSilos Baking Co.The Silos

Behind Magnolia Market was a large turf area where kids could play, beautiful swings, a large covered pavilion with picnic tables, lots of food trucks, even selling some of the food from Silos Bakery and Magnolia Table. Magnolia Seed & Supply had pretty raised vegetable, herb and flower beds.

Large Play Area

Large Pavilion with Picnic Tables

Beautiful swings

Magnolia Seed & Supply

We were fortunate to recognize and get a picture of Joanna Gaines’ mother and sister!

The original Magnolia store where it all began is now home to discontinued and sale items. All of the Magnolia areas are decorated in Joanna’s black and white color schemes. It is very evident they have bought a good bit of property in the town of Waco and probably will be expanding that area.

Our last stop of the day was to see the farm that was renovated and is currently Chip and Joanna Gaines home.

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Our first sightseeing stop of our 2019 RV-Revelation journey was a visit to “The Big Easy, New Orleans.” We pulled into Pontchartrain Landing which is a combination of Villa’s, Marina and RV Resort located on Lake Pontchartrain, just minutes from the French Quarter.

The resort offers a shuttle service or Uber, which is a wise idea, as parking and driving the narrow streets downtown can be tricky. Uber it was for us, so we could arrive early at Café Du Monde in the historic French Quarter for our first sample of New Orleans cuisine, the Beignets!

Beignets

Just across the street is Jackson Square, which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. It’s the site the Louisiana purchase was made in 1803. The statue is Andrew Jackson, with Saint Louis Cathedral in the background. It is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States. It faces the mighty Mississippi River.

Jackson Square

Saint Louis Cathedral

A beautiful stroll along the mighty Mississippi River to the French Market.

Mighty Mississippi River

French Market

It was a beautiful day registering in the 90’s, with a lovely breeze, but we soon realized this is a big area to cover in one day, so we took the Hop On, Hop Off, City Tour. Another option is the historic Street Cars.

The bus tour offers beautiful sights and history narration of the area. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 had an interesting pyramid shaped vault (unfortunately not shown) which was purchased by Nicholas Cage. The Mercedes Benz Superdome is home to the New Orleans Saints NFL football team.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Superdome

The Garden District is lined with oak-shaded streets and charming cottages, shotgun houses and beautiful mansions.

The Manning House was home to Archie Manning, a beloved New Orleans Saint. His sons, Eli and Peyton grew up in this house on 1420 First Street in the Garden District. It’s the House of Champions!

The Manning House

The Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 has almost 500 wall vaults and a rich history of some of the first settlers and famous people. There are 1,100 family tombs and over 7,000 people buried in the cemetery.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

The Commanders Palace Restaurant since 1880, is known for it’s awarding winning food, unfortunately we did not partake, no shorts allowed, we were a little under-dressed!

Commanders Palace Restaurant

One thing for sure is you better wear good walking shoes, the sidewalks are ankle breakers!

Sidewalks-Ankle Breakers

Remnants of days of old, 1984 World’s Fair “Neptune” the theme that year was “The World of Rivers – Fresh Waters as a Source of Life.”